From Ethnomedicine to Evidence-based Antibacterials: A Review of Antibacterial Properties of Selected Medicinal Plants Historically Used to Treat Infections

Given the limited number of new antibiotics in development and the decreasing effectiveness of those currently available, the miraculous impact of antibiotics in modern medicine appears to be nearing its end. Medicinal plants offer a promising alternative source for discovering new antimicrobial agents, given their vast diversity of biologically active constituents and the knowledge accumulated through centuries of use in traditional medicine.

In this review, we present a state-of-the-art overview of the antibacterial properties of five medicinal plants used to treat infections in ancient and medieval medicine and that continue to play a significant role in traditional therapeutic practices for addressing various human infections. The selected plants are Acorus calamus, Myrtus communis, and species of Boswellia, Urtica, and Plantago. The author conducted a comprehensive systematic search across PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The focus was on bioactive constituents, antibacterial susceptibility and spectrum, mechanisms of action, and suggested clinical applications in modern medicine for treating bacterial infections. This review synthesizes current knowledge, highlights the scarcity of pharmacological studies identifying medicinal compounds with specific antibacterial effects, and concludes that the development of new phytoantibacterial agents will depend on accelerating clinical research, particularly randomized controlled trials, to expedite their approval as new antibacterials.